North Korea to top agenda at Lee-Hu summit in China

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will this week ask China to use its influence to lean on North Korea to show restraint amid a delicate transition to a new leadership in Pyongyang focused on projecting a militaristic image.

Lee will hold a summit with China’s president, Hu Jintao, in Beijing and will “discuss ways to develop the strategic partnership between the two nations and cooperative measures for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula”, the South Korean president’s office said in a statement.

Lee’s three-day state trip to China, his second in four years, starts tomorrow.

The South has said its primary foreign policy goal this year is maintaining stability on the divided peninsula as its unpredictable neighbour embarks on a third generation of dynastic rule following Kim Jong-il’s death last month.

Little is known about Kim’s chosen successor, his son Kim Jong-un, who in his late 20s and who will be relying on a small circle of trusted members of the military and political elite to act as minders while he cements his grip on power.

North Korean Mourners Line Streets for Kim Jong-il's Funeral

Kim Jong-un, the designated successor to the socialist throne in Pyongyang, North Korea, bid farewell on Wednesday to his deceased father, Kim Jong-il, walking along his hearse through snow-covered downtown Pyongyang in an ...

Funeral for North Korean leader starts

North Korea's military staged a huge funeral procession on Wednesday in the snowy streets of the capital Pyongyang for its deceased "dear leader," Kim Jong-il, readying a transition to his son, Kim Jong-un.North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un cries as his father, North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-il, lies in state during the run-up to his funeral in Pyongyang in this still image taken from video broadcast on December 27, 2011.



Pictures from state television showed a funeral cortege led by a limousine carrying a huge picture of the 69-year old, who died on December 17, passing serried ranks of olive green-clad soldiers whose heads were bowed.

A hearse carrying the coffin was led by a weeping Kim Jong-un, accompanied Jang Song-thaek, his uncle and a key power-broker in the transition, and Ri Yong-ho, the army chief of staff.

Kim Jong-un will become the third member of the family to run the isolated and unpredictable Asian country.

The coming year was supposed to mark North Korea's self-proclaimed transformation into a "strong and prosperous" nation, but it faces a dangerous transition to a young, untested leader at a time when dictatorships across the world have tumbled.

It would seem however that little is set to change in a country that has staged what many analysts have dubbed a "Great March Backwards" over the last 20 years.

Strong it may be - North Korea is backed by neighbouring China, has conducted two nuclear tests and has ambitions to become a nuclear power and boasts a 1.2 million-strong armed forces - but prosperous it is not.

On average, North Koreans die three-and-a-half years earlier than they did when "Eternal President" Kim Il-sung died, according to U.N. data.

Japan getting ready for unexpected after Kim’s death

Portraits of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung (left) and his son Kim Jong-il at the People’s Palace of Culture in Pyongyang


Japan scurried to prepare for the unexpected today after news that Kim Jong-il, the leader of its unpredictable neighbour North Korea, had died of a heart attack.

“We hope this sudden event does not have an adverse effect on the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told a news conference after a hastily called ministerial meeting on security.

Kim Jong Il: Revered at home; remembered outside as repressive

North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il, the embodiment of the reclusive state where his cult of personality is deeply entrenched, has died.

Dear Leader Kim Jong-il dead at 69

A file photo shows a national meeting held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Kim Jong-il’s start of work at the central committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea in Pyongyang June 18, 2004. Father and son together in later life. Kim Jong-il is seen in this combination of file photographs from 2004 to 2009.



orth Korean leader Kim Jong-il, revered at home by a propaganda machine that turned him into a demi-god and vilified in the West as a temperamental tyrant with a nuclear arsenal, has died, North Korean state television reported today.

Kim, who was 69 years old, died early on Saturday of a heart attack while on a train journey, it said.

US Navy intercepted North Korean ship sending missile material to Myanmar

The guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell transits the western Pacific Ocean during combat system ship qualification trials in this US Navy handout photo dated May 26, 2010.

The US Navy intercepted a North Korean ship suspected of carrying missile parts to Myanmar two weeks ago, media reports and a US official said yesterday.

The New York Times reported late on Sunday, citing senior American officials, that a North Korean cargo ship was forced to return home after a standoff at sea and several days of diplomatic pressure from Washington and Asian nations.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner confirmed the interception, but declined to comment on the cargo or destination of the North Korean vessel.

“We talked directly with the North Koreans to stress the importance of not engaging in proliferation-related transfers,” he said.

“We learned that the ship, the vessel, changed course at sea, and we believe it returned to North Korea,” said Toner.

UN sanctions imposed on North Korea after it conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 include a ban on trade in nuclear and missile technology with North Korea. A UN resolution adopted last year authorised UN member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo.

According to the Times, the destroyer USS McCampbell caught up with the cargo ship M/V Light south of Shanghai on May 26 after American officials began tracking the vessel, which was believed to have been involved in previous illegal shipments.

The destroyer asked to board the vessel under authority given by Belize, but the North Koreans refused, Toner said.

“The ship’s master refusing us permission to board it, as well as the fact that it turned around and headed back to North Korea, speaks to ... some of our concerns about its cargo,” he said.

North Korea leader’s armoured train arrives in Chinese capital

 North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (right) and his youngest son Kim Jong-un (left) gesture next to a military official during a gala evening to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang on October 10, 2010.

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il’s armoured train arrived in Beijing today, setting the stage for a summit with Chinese leaders that he will want to underscore the bond between his isolated state and Asia’s biggest economy.

A motorcade later swept down central Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue under unusually tight police guard, suggesting the secretive Kim was in the Chinese capital.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Kim was there “apparently for a summit meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao”.

Neither China nor North Korea has confirmed the visit.



This would be the third trip to China in just over a year for Kim, who in previous years rarely travelled abroad and then only in his personal train, reportedly scared of flying.

Impoverished North Korea has recently been scouring the world for food aid and analysts say Kim is keen to ensure China’s support for his youngest son to eventually take over the family dynasty that has ruled the North since its founding.

As ties with South Korea and most of the outside world have soured, Pyongyang has been forced to rely increasingly on Beijing for economic and diplomatic support.

“He seems to want to tacitly remind China’s current leadership of their solidarity and call on them to fulfill their obligation as a big brother,” a South Korean newspaper, the JoongAng Daily, said.

“That’s in sharp contrast with the Chinese government’s purpose of inviting Kim: to stress economic reform.”

A number of analysts say China, keen to keep North Korea from collapse but concerned by its deep economic decline, has been prodding Pyongyang’s leaders to finally start economic reforms.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Tokyo on the weekend that Kim was in China to study “economic development”, Yonhap reported, citing a South Korean presidential aide.

The reclusive Kim’s latest train journey to China began on Friday and took him through China’s frigid northeast to the prosperous eastern province of Jiangsu.

Kim visited China, his country’s sole major supporter, last year in early May and then in August. In the past, neither side has openly confirmed his visits until they are over.

Beijing sees North Korea as a strategic buffer against the US and its regional allies. It has sought to shore up ties with the North in recent years with more aid and trade and visits there by leaders.

Iran denies missile technology exchange with N.Korea

 

An undated handout picture shows the Iranian supersonic ballistic missile, Persian Gulf, launching during a war-game in an unknown location in Iran.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied today a UN report that Tehran had exchanged missile technology with North Korea, a move which could be a violation of Security Council sanctions.

Iran and North Korea are both under UN sanctions over their nuclear ambitions. Iran says its nuclear programme is aimed at peaceful purposes mainly to generate electricity.

The report, obtained by Reuters over the weekend, said North Korea appeared to have been exchanging ballistic missile technology and expertise with Iran in violation of Security Council sanctions.

Iran has announced a string of achievements in its missile technology in the past years.

“We have repeatedly rejected reports on the exchange of ballistic missile technology or parts with any country,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at a news conference in Tehran.

“Our scientific and technological capabilities are high enough so that we do not need any other country to give us such technology.”

Western powers fear Iran is trying to build nuclear bombs and long-range ballistic technology which Tehran says is used to put satellites into orbit can also be used to launch warheads.

The UN sanctions include bans on trade in nuclear and missile technology with both Iran and North Korea, as well as arms embargoes. They also ban trade with certain firms and impose asset freezes and travel bans on some officials in the two countries.

North Korea again calls for end to confrontation with South

South Korean Army soldiers patrol along a seashore at sunset during a photo opportunity in Dangjin, southwest of Seoul.

North Korea called for end to confrontation and emphasised the need for dialogue with the South in a joint editorial published today by official newspapers, repeating the line from a year ago in the wake of clashes in 2010.

“Confrontation between north and south should be defused as early as possible,” said the joint editorial by three main official newspapers, carried by the KCNA news agency.

“Active efforts should be made to create an atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation between north and south by placing the common interests of the nation above anything else.”

But North Korea failed to make any detailed offer for talks and the rhetoric was largely along the line from a year ago, when the editorial said: “National reconciliation and cooperation should be promoted actively.”



Tensions between the rival Koreas have reached some of the highest levels since their 1950-53 Korean War in 2010, when the North shelled an island in the South killing four people.

South Korea and its allies also blamed the North for torpedoing one of the South’s navy ships in March, killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang denies the charge.

Train with gifts for N.Korea heir derails

A train packed with birthday gifts for North Korea’s leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un derailed this month in a possible act of sabotage, a Seoul-based radio station which broadcasts across the border reported today.

Open Radio for North Korea, a non-profit station which often cites sources in the reclusive, impoverished North, said the train laden with gifts, including televisions and watches, came off the rails on December 11 near North Korea’s border with China.

“The security service has been in an emergency situation because a train departing Sinuiju and headed for Pyongyang derailed on December 11,” the radio station quoted a source in the security service in North Phyongan province as saying.




The city of Sinuiju is a North Korean trading gateway.

“The tracks and rail beds are so old it is possible there was decay in the wood or nails that secured the tracks could have been dislodged but the extent of damage to the tracks and the timing of the incident points to a chance that someone intentionally damaged the tracks,” the source said.

“It’s highly likely that it was someone who is opposed to succession to Kim Jong-un,” the source said, according to the radio station.

Very little is known about Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of ailing leader Kim Jong-il. In his mid-20s, he was appointed to key military and government positions this year, suggesting that he is the chosen successor. His birthday is believed to be January 8.

His father appears to have lavish tastes. This month a Viennese court found an Austrian man guilty of selling luxury goods believed to be destined for Kim Jong-il in a yacht deal worth 3.3 million euros (RM13.5 million).

The deal included several top-end Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars and musical instruments such as a Steinway grand piano, the court heard.

The sale of luxury goods to North Korea is banned under a UN resolution in response to the country’s nuclear testing programme but Kim is said to hold opulent receptions where he displays yachts and other expensive items procured abroad.

North Korea nuclear test ‘possible’ in new year

A North Korean Scud-B missile (centre) and South Korean Hawk surface-to-air missiles are seen at the Korean War Memorial Museum in Seoul, on December 24, 2010

North Korea could carry out a third nuclear test next year to strengthen the credentials of its young leader-in-waiting, Kim Jong-un, a research report from a South Korean Foreign Ministry institute said yesterday.

The report came a day after Pyongyang vowed a nuclear “sacred war,” using its nuclear deterrent, after the South vowed to be “merciless” if attacked again and held a major military drill near the border.

The North, which carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, has yet to show it has a deliverable weapon as part of its plutonium arms programme, but a third test would raise tensions further on the divided peninsula and rattle global markets.




South Korean media reported earlier this month that the North was digging a tunnel in preparation for a nuclear test.

“There is a possibility of North Korea carrying out its third nuclear test to seek improvement in its nuclear weapons production capability, keep the military tension high and promote Kim Jong-un’s status as the next leader,” the report said, referring to ailing Kim Jong-il’s youngest son.

“Tension between the two Koreas will remain high with chances of additional North Korean attacks on the South staying high,” the Foreign Ministry-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security said.

“US ENTIRELY TO BLAME”

Tension on the peninsula is at its highest since the 1950-53 Korean War, after a deadly naval clash in March and the North’s artillery attack on a South Korean island last month which killed four people. The two Koreas are technically still at war as their civil conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty.

The North’s KCNA news agency, which regularly threatens total destruction of the rich capitalist South, yesterday lay the blame on Washington and called South Korea one of its “shock brigades.”

“The US is entirely to blame for the alarming developments on the peninsula this year as it used the peninsula for realising its strategy to dominate East Asia,” KCNA said in a commentary.

Analysts said recent tensions have managed to turn back the clock on ties between the rivals by more than a decade.

“In the South, impatience with Pyongyang is growing, and there are demands from the right in Seoul for more robust terms of military engagement in the event of future clashes,” said Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group.

Still, the risk of all-out war is low, and the North’s threats of destruction are seen as largely rhetorical.

A North Korean Scud-B missile (centre) and South Korean Hawk surface-to-air missiles are seen at the Korean War Memorial Museum in Seoul, on December 24, 2010

Pyongyang’s tactic of boasting about nuclear advances is a ploy aimed at restarting talks between itself, the South, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, from which it hopes to wring concessions, analysts say.

The Foreign Ministry report said six-party talks, which North Korea walked out of two years ago, will likely resume in 2011 but progress on reining in the North on its nuclear programme will remain elusive.

China, the North’s only major ally and vital financial backer, sees the forum as the best place to begin dialogue, but Seoul, Washington and Tokyo say they first need proof that Pyongyang is committed to dismantling its nuclear facilities.

North Korea could carry out a third nuclear test next year to strengthen the credentials of its young leader-in-waiting, Kim Jong-un, a research report from a South Korean Foreign Ministry institute said yesterday.

China urges North Korea to accept nuclear inspectors

North Korean soldiers stand guard yesterday on the banks of Yalu River near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong


China yesterday urged North Korea to follow through on its offer to allow United Nations nuclear monitors into the country as a way to alleviate international tensions during a standoff with South Korea.

China, North Korea’s only major ally, has continually urged dialogue to resolve the crisis and has been reluctant to blame its neighbour for the shelling of a South Korean island last month, in which two Marines and two civilians were killed.

South Korea held further live-fire drills on the island on Monday, raising fears of all-out war, but the North did not retaliate. Instead, it offered to accept nuclear inspectors it has kicked out of the country previously.

“North Korea has the right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes, but also at the same time must allow IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors in,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing.




“All parties should realise that artillery fire and military force cannot solve the issues on the peninsula, and dialogue and cooperation are the only correct approaches.”

The United States continued to voice scepticism over North Korea’s intentions, and said it was too early to consider resuming long-stalled six-party talks over its nuclear programme as Beijing and Pyongyang hope.

“Right now the action must come not from their words, but from their deeds,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said on his return from a visit to Pyongyang, where he acted as an unofficial envoy, that North Korea had promised to allow in inspectors to make sure it was not processing highly enriched uranium.

He told reporters North Korea had shown a “pragmatic attitude” in his unofficial talks.

“The specifics are that they will allow IAEA personnel to go to Yongbyon to ensure that they are not processing highly enriched uranium, that they are proceeding with peaceful purposes,” Richardson said in Beijing, referring to North Korea’s main nuclear site.

But analysts said it was unclear how much access IAEA inspectors would get because North Korea had limited their oversight in the past. They also said the worry was whether there were other nuclear sites hidden outside of Yongbyon.

“The question that remains is whether this is the only facility,” said Andrei Lankov at Kookmin University in Seoul. “A uranium enrichment programme is much easier to hide than a plutonium one.”

South Korea and the United States suspect Pyongyang, which carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and last year, has more sites geared to enriching uranium outside Yongbyon, the complex that is at the heart of the North’s plutonium weapons programme.

It consists of a five-megawatt reactor, construction of which began in 1980, a fuel fabrication facility and a plutonium reprocessing plant, where weapons-grade material is extracted from spent fuel rods.

Lankov said the North’s suggestion of compromise after provocation was a “usual tactic” of the impoverished state that had worked in the past to win aid.

“They create a crisis, they show that they are dangerous and drive tensions high,” he said. “Then they show they could make some concessions.”

If IAEA inspectors were allowed to carry out monitoring, it could help to address a key concern about North Korea’s uranium enrichment work because highly enriched material can be used in atomic weapons.

Seoul shares rose 0.8 per cent, broadly in line with other regional markets, to end at a three-year high yesterday, as anxiety over tension on the Korean peninsula eased, but the won currency remained under pressure.

The mood on Yeonpyeong Island had eased after the previous day’s drill, with military personnel visibly relaxed and preparing to sail back to the mainland.

North Korea, which has refused full IAEA oversight since 2002 and expelled inspectors last April, has said it only wants to enrich uranium to the low level used to make fuel for a civilian atomic power programme.

But in order to check this, the IAEA would need continued, unfettered access to all of North Korea’s uranium enrichment activities. It would usually require frequent inspections, video cameras and special seals to ensure that none of the material is being diverted for military use.

Richardson said of the North’s offer: “I believe that’s an important gesture on their part, but there still has to be a commitment eventually by the North Koreans to denuclearise, to abide by the 2005 agreement that says they will terminate their nuclear weapons activities.”

Richardson suggested the offer might pave the way for the resumption of six-party talks that also involve the United States, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea — although Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have been cool to this idea, reluctant to reward perceived bad behaviour.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said US officials had not been briefed on Richardson’s trip and said the onus was on Pyongyang to demonstrate its sincerity.

“We and others have had conversations with North Korea before,” he said. “The real issue is what will North Korea do. So we’re not going to judge a moment on a conversation between the governor and officials in North Korea.”

A key South Korean government official said the recent aggression by the North was closely linked to the succession from ailing leader Kim Jong-il to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, and was intended for its domestic audience as much as for anybody.

“We don’t want to give them the misperception that their provocations will help their national interest,” he said.

The UN Security Council remained deadlocked in its efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but North Korea’s refraining from retaliation and the nuclear offer made to Richardson offered some breathing space.

But the South Korean government official, who declined to be identified, said Seoul could not take the North Korean offer seriously as it was not official. He said the five parties had to agree first on what to offer the North.

“Then we can pursue six-party talks. But the next six-party talks will be the grand bargain. That means a target year (for dismantlement) and the whole picture in the next round, not partial elements.”

South Korea army to hold huge drill, North silent

A South Korean Army soldier walks up steps of a guard post near the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, north of Seoul, on December 22, 2010.


South Korea announced land and sea military exercises yesterday including its largest-ever live-fire drill near North Korea just as tension on the peninsula was beginning to ease after Pyongyang’s attack on a southern island.

The land drill, involving three dozen mobile artillery guns, six fighter jets, multiple launch rocket systems and 800 troops, the largest number of personnel in a single peace-time exercise, will take place on Thursday and is likely irritate the North.

The scale of the drill and the timing, coming right after the tensely staged a live-fire exercise on Monday, indicate South Korea’s conservative President Lee Myung-bak sees more political mileage in taking a tough military stance rather than reverting to dialogue, despite overtures from Pyongyang.




Lee’s government was heavily criticised at home for a perceived weak response to North Korea’s shelling of the southern island of Yeonpyeong last month.

“We’ll be sure to deal a punishing blow if the North tries to repeat the kind of situation like the artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong,” Brigadier General Ju Eun-shik said in a statement.

There was no immediate reaction from North Korea. State news agency KCNA, which regularly denounces the South, United States and Japan, made no mention of the drills, although it carried an article lambasting a US lawmaker critical of Pyongyang as “human scum” and a “political illiterate.”

South Korea is also holding three days of live-firing naval drills off the peninsula’s east coast starting yesterday, a media official at the Defence Ministry said.

He would not provide details. Yonhap news agency said the drills were taking place 100 km south of the maritime border with North Korea and involved at least six naval vessels.

North Korea this week offered to re-admit UN inspectors concerned about its nuclear-weapon programme, leading to speculation of a resumption of six-party disarmament talks and a general sense of relief that the crisis had passed.

“The drills are an indication that (the South) is aiming to keep tensions very high, partly because of the possibility of the North striking back,” said Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University.

“Dialogue is clearly not high on the agenda. It’s still very much in the mode of how they can respond to incidents like the one on Yeonpyeong and to show that response in the future will be overwhelming.”

The South Korean Army is making no secret that the drill is aimed at displaying its firepower to its neighbour.

“Yes, it will be a show of force against that,” an army officer said, when asked if the shelling of Yeonpyeong last month was a factor in the land drill’s planning.

He said similar drills had been staged previously on more than 50 occasions, but the scale this time was unprecedented.

“The scale of mechanised assets taking place is enormous. When we would normally have 6 K-9 mechanised artillery, we’ll have 36. We’ll have the F-15 jets firing. We’ll have choppers. You can say most of the mechanised assets taking part will be firing live ammunition.”

It will take place in the Pocheon region, less than 50 km north of downtown Seoul.

The latest crisis peaked when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong, just south of the disputed maritime border, killing four people — including two civilians — in the worst attack on South Korean territory since the end of the civil war in 1953.

The South carried out live-fire drills on Yeonpyeong on Monday, which provoked only a verbal reaction from the North. It had vowed to strike back if the South went ahead with the drills, prompting fears of all-out war.

China, North Korea’s only major ally, has urged dialogue to resolve the crisis and urged Pyongyang to follow through on its offer to allow UN inspectors into the country.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the planned drill.

Analysts say the North is unlikely to undertake another hostile act like this year’s attack on South Korea’s Cheonan warship, blamed on the North by the United States and the South, and the Yeonpyeong shelling, at least in the near term.

Its most likely next move would be to conduct live-fire artillery drills or possibly a short-range missile test into its waters off the west coast.

Analysts have said they believe its recent military acts were aimed at bolstering the ruling family as ailing leader Kim Jong-il grooms his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as his successor.

“North Korea likes to step towards the brink and then away from it again,” said Brian Myers, an expert on the North at South Korea’s Dongseo University.

“The news from Pyongyang in the past few days indicates that the Kim Jong-il regime is now in the backing-off part of its usual cycle.”

He said the North probably did not expect the South to go through with live-fire exercises on Monday.

“If it had, it would not have made such loud threats of reprisal in its domestic media. After the exercises took place, the Kim regime had to tell its own people that the South’s ‘provocation’ was not worth responding to, a flip-flop it cannot afford to repeat in just a few days. I don’t expect the North to be quite as vocal about the next round of exercises.”

South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun, speaking before the announcement of the drill, said domestic financial markets had weathered the crisis and the South Korean economy, Asia’s fourth-largest, stayed on a growth track.

But he warned that the tension could still dent consumer spending with a key sentiment measure due tomorrow.

South Korean markets were unaffected by the tensions with foreign investors buying into stocks and bond futures. Traders said earlier that the won currency was generally being affected more by concern over the euro zone.

Consumers and businesses in South Korea say they have lived with tension on the divided peninsula for years and markets do not always react, although the recent crisis had rattled global markets and remained an underlying risk

North Korea backs down over South Korean drill

Policemen and a soldier lead people to an air raid bunker on Yeonpyeong Island on December 20, 2010. South Korean marines have ordered residents of Yeonpyeong island to move to air raid bunkers in anticipation of a live-fire drill yesterday.


North Korea stepped back from confrontation over “reckless” military drills by the South yesterday and reportedly issued a new offer on nuclear inspections, drawing a cautious response from Seoul and Washington.

Air-raid bunkers on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong shook during South Korea’s live-fire artillery exercise, which went on for more than 90 minutes.

But the North Korean guns that had shelled the island after a similar drill last month stayed silent, bringing a measure of relief in a crisis that raised fears of war along one of the world’s most heavily fortified frontiers.

“The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK did not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military provocation,” the official KCNA news agency said, quoting a communique from the North’s Korean People’s Army Supreme Command that called the drills a “childish play with fire.”




The UN Security Council remained deadlocked in its efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but North Korea’s refraining from retaliation and the nuclear offer reportedly made to US trouble-shooter Bill Richardson offered some breathing space.

Richardson, speaking to CNN from Pyongyang, said he sensed a greater flexibility among North Korean officials.

“Their tone was more positive, as if they realised they’d gone into the precipice with their very negative actions,” said Richardson, who has had extensive past contacts with North Korea.

“They seemed to realise that they had maybe gone too far and now was a time to reach out,” Richardson said, according to a transcript released by CNN.

But others remained worried.

“The situation is very tense,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow. “There can be no optimism in this situation.”

The United States said North Korea’s decision not to retaliate simply showed it was behaving “the way countries are supposed to act.” It reacted cautiously to word of the nuclear offer, saying it would wait for concrete evidence of North Korea’s intentions.

“We’ve seen a string of broken promises by North Korea going back many, many years,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. “We’ll be guided by what North Korea does, not by what North Korea says it might do under certain circumstances.”

South Korean financial markets took the day’s events in their stride, recovering from early falls, but international investors remained concerned, with the cost of insuring South Korean sovereign debt for five years rising 10 per cent.

The mercurial North had threatened it would strike back if its neighbour went ahead with the live-fire exercise.

On November 23, North Korean artillery shelled Yeonpyeong, close to the disputed maritime border off the west coast of the Korean peninsula, and killed four people in the worst attack on South Korean territory since the Korean war ended in 1953.

“It’s a perfectly natural thing for a sovereign nation and a divided country to conduct military exercises to defend its territory in the face of military conflict,” South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in a statement.

Yesterday’s artillery exercise came hours after a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis ended in an impasse, with Russia and China resisting an explicit condemnation of North Korea for last month’s attack.

Another Security Council meeting planned for yesterday was scrapped as diplomats assessed their positions.

But amid the gloom, New Mexico Governor Richardson, visiting Pyongyang to try to ease tensions, won agreement from North Korea to allow UN nuclear inspectors to return, according to CNN, which has a team travelling with him.

Pyongyang “agreed to allow International Atomic Energy Agency personnel to return to a nuclear facility in the country and agreed to negotiate the sale of 12,000 ... fuel rods and ship them to an outside country, presumably to South Korea,” CNN said, quoting correspondent Wolf Blitzer in Pyongyang.

Richardson said the offer might pave the way for the resumption of the so-called “6-party” talks on nuclear disarmament which also involve the United States, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea — although Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have been cool to this idea.

“Maybe now is the time for the six-party countries to reach out to North Korea and say, ‘OK, let’s get down to business,’” he said on CNN’s “The Situation Room” show.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm any agreement and therefore could not evaluate it. The State Department sounded sceptical, underscoring that Richardson was on a private trip and had not formally briefed US officials on what occurred.

“If North Korea wants to re-engage with the IAEA, wants to reintroduce inspectors into its facilities, that certainly would be a positive step,” Crowley said. “The key is following through and implementing that decision.”

Richardson was visiting in an unofficial capacity, the traditional means of communication between the two sides, and it was unclear whether the reported agreement meant real progress, particularly given Pyongyang’s poor record of honouring deals.

North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. It expelled inspectors in April 2009 after ripping up a previous disarmament-for-aid agreement. Last month Pyongyang unveiled major technical progress in uranium enrichment.

“Pyongyang is still using the same playbook: pursue provocative behaviour, threaten the international community and then come up with some conciliatory gesture,” said Nicholas Szechenyi, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said North Korea’s reported advances with uranium could make visits to its existing Yongbyon nuclear facility less informative about the true state of its nuclear programme.

“Returning IAEA inspectors to only Yongbyon really is a case of inspecting the barn after the horses have left,” he said.

Tension ahead of the military drills hit Korean markets when they opened yesterday, but shares recouped most of their losses to close down just 0.3 per cent, while the won ended local trade higher against the dollar.

Both sides have said they will use force to defend what they say is their territory off the west coast, raising fears the standoff could quickly spiral out of control.

Diplomats at the UN Security Council said plans for another session on Korean tensions yesterday had been scrapped with China’s envoys still awaiting word from Beijing.

Russia had called Sunday’s emergency Security Council meeting to try to prevent an escalation, but major powers failed to agree on a draft statement because of differences over whether to lay the blame on Pyongyang.

North Korea threatens to launch two retaliatory strikes over further planned artillery drills on disputed island

Tense: South Korean marines patrol on Yeongpyeong Island as the country announced it would stage further artillery drills over the weekend

Stand off: South Korean Navy vessels lie off the disputed island. North Korea has threatened to launch two retaliatory strikes if the drills go ahead

North Korea has again warned its southern neighbour to stop planned artillery drills on disputed islands and said it would launch two retaliatory strikes if it failed to comply.

South Korea has said it plans to carry out a 24-hour live-fire drill on Yeonpyeong Island sometime between Saturday and Tuesday, depending on weather.

Pyongyang, which claims ownership of nearby waters and has said it considers the drills an infringement of its territory, responded to similar firing exercises last month by shelling the tiny island.

Patrol: Police officers walk past a shelter on the island. Artillery drills last month saw the north shell Yeonpyeong, killing four people

Envoy: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson arrives in Pyongyang in a bid to ease the tension between the two countries

That attack killed four people on the island, including two civilians, which is home to a fishing community and military bases.

An unnamed senior North Korean military official told the Korean Central News Agency that if the south carried out more drills 'despite our military's prior warnings, second and third unpredictable self-defensive strikes will be made'.

A notice sent to the South Korean military today added that the retaliation would be made 'to safeguard our republic's sacred territorial waters' and that the 'intensity and scope of the strike will be more serious than the November 23 shelling'.

Seoul has said its planned drills are part of 'routine, justified' exercises and has warned that it is prepared to deal with any North Korean attack.

Representatives of the American-led UN Command, which oversees the armistice which ended the Korean War, will observe the drills.

The stand off comes as a high-profile U.S. state governor visited North Korea today in a bid to ease tensions.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has been a frequent unofficial envoy for the north, said he wanted to visit the country's main nuclear complex and meet with senior officials during his four-day trip.

He said ahead of his visit that he expected to get some sort of message from North Korea.

'My objective is to see if we can reduce the tension in the Korean peninsula.'

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the drills posed no threat.

'North Korea should not see these South Korean actions as a provocation,' he added.

Kim Jong Il's eldest son attacks choice of his younger brother as North Korea's next leader

Kim Jong Il's eldest son has hit out at his father's choice of successor as his younger brother Kim Jong Un is prepared to take over as ruler of North Korea.

Kim Jong Un - said to be his father's favourite - has become the front-runner to inherit the mantle of leadership, despite his youth and inexperience.

Kim Jong Nam was once considered likely to succeed his ailing father but reportedly fell out of favor after being caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001.

And it was a Japanese TV programme - TV Asahi - which broadcast footage of Kim Jong Nam making the remarks in Beijing, in which he said he opposes a hereditary transfer of power to a third generation of his family.
 

Passed over: Kim Jong-Nam attacked his father's choice of successor

The chosen one: North Korea leader Kim Jong Il, left, and his son Kim Jong Un observe the huge military parade at the weekend

'Personally, I am against third-generation succession, but .... if there were internal factors, (we) should abide by them,' he said.

Kim John Nam's comments follow a spectacular parade at Pyongyang Plaza in North Korea over the weekend.

It was officially staged to mark the 65th anniversary of the ruling Workers Party, founded by late President Kim Il Sung, but the subtext proved to be the first major public outing for Kim Jong Un.

Having all but banned the international media from North Korea, Kim Jong Il invited selected media to the parade - the biggest in the country's history - to give them a better look at his anointed successor.

Until two weeks ago, Kim Jong Un's future was little more than rumor and speculation outside North Korea.

The third son of Kim Jong Il had never appeared in the tightly-controlled state media until late last month, and even the exact spelling of his name was unclear, as is his age.

Believed to be 26, there were not even any photos of him as an adult until the state's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper recently published a group shot of the young man seated with his father and other top party leaders.

But his promotion to four-star general late last month, followed by his appointment to key political posts within the Workers' Party, confirmed suspicions he is being groomed to take the Kim family dynasty into a third generation.

Last week state television showed still images of father and son watching a military unit carry out live-fire drills.

The Swiss-educated son, known as the Young General or Young Commander, looks set to take control of the nuclear-armed nation of 24 million when his father steps down.

The question of succession has been a pressing one since Kim Jong Il, 68, reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008.

The inexperienced son would face a mountain of challenges if he were to take over as leader anytime soon, including tensions with regional powers over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and a faltering economy further strained by sanctions imposed by the U.S. and United Nations.

But after three public appearances in two days, the two Kims stayed out of the spotlight on Monday.

Unusually, the international media who were allowed into the country to cover the parade were also allowed rare access to families away from the official events.

With few natural resources and little arable land, North Korea has struggled to feed its people since natural disasters battered its agricultural industry in the 1990s and aid from the former Soviet bloc dried up.

But the communist regime still rules and its people seemed ready to embrace the leader in waiting.

Yesterday, a national holiday at the tail end of a long weekend, every North Korean received a special gift from the government, as is the case on most major holidays.

Pak Chol, a 23-year-old who said he watched the live parade broadcast at home, took his family to the popular holiday spot of Moran Hill in Pyongyang for a picnic with their food parcelsm which included beer, Korean soju liquor, meat, fish and snacks.

'He has President Kim Il Sung's face,' said Pak.

'We had heard that when the Young General was young, he was admired by everyone who met him for his intelligence and good personality.

'I truly felt the strength of our country when I saw the Great Leader Kim Jong Il and the Young General Kim Jong Un.

'If we have General Kim Jong Il and young General Kim Jong Un leading the country, we can open up the gates and become a stronger and more prosperous nation.'

Down at the Taedong River, families gathered to fish and use paddleboats.

Jo Hyang Mi, who also said she watched Sunday's military parade on TV, was equally effusive in Kim Jong Un's praise.

'I was so happy to see Kim Jong Un after he was elected vice-chairman of the military commission,' she said.

'I feel happy and full of conviction knowing that our country is powerful and that our strength comes from the leadership of our Great Leader Kim Jong Il and from Kim Jong Un.'

Kim Jong Un is likely to inherit leadership of North Korea when Kim Jong Il dies.

Kim Jong Il himself became leader when Kim Il Sung died in 1994 in what was the communist world's first hereditary transfer of power.

Kim Il Sung was a former guerrilla who fought against Japan's colonization of Korea and built a cult of personality around himself and his son after founding the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948.

Broadcast: The spectacular parade was shown live on TV, where most North Koreans saw it

Show of force: Thousands of troops from every branch of North Korea's 1.2-million-strong military joined the parade

Nuclear nation: Tanks and trucks loaded with rocket launchers and grenades rolled past the assembled dignitaries

Broadcast: The spectacular parade was shown live on TV, where most North Koreans saw it

North Korea confirms for the first time that Kim Jong Un will succeed his father as leader

A North Korean official has confirmed today for the first time that Kim Jong Il's youngest son will succeed him as the communist nation's next leader.

Yang Hyong Sop, a top official in North Korea's ruling party, referred to Kim Jong Un as 'the young general' during an interview with APTN.

He said the nation's people would be honoured to serve him as their leader.

Kim Jong Un would be the third successive generation of his family to lead North Korea, which has a population of 24 million.

His grandfather Kim Il Sung founded the nation in 1948 on a policy of self-reliance called 'juche'.

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Family tradition: Grandfather Kim Il Sung founded North Korea in 1948 and was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il in 1994. Right, Kim Jong Un will be the next leader

On ceremony: Kim Jong Un standing with other North Korean Army figures. He was promoted to a four-star general last month

Yang said: 'Our people take pride in the fact that they are blessed with great leaders from generation to generation.

'Our people are honoured to serve the great President Kim Il Sung and the great leader Kim Jong Il.

'Now we also have the honour of serving young General Kim Jong Un.'

Yang is a member of the political bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, - the equivalent of the country's parliament.

Kim Jong Un had been virtually unknown outside the secretive nation before he made his public debut last week, when he was promoted to four-star general and vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea's central military commission.

That backed up analyst speculation that he had been chosen to succeed his ailing father as eventual ruler of the impoverished authoritarian regime, which pursues active nuclear and missile programs.

The world got its first real glimpse of Kim Jong Un last week when his photo was published in state media and he was shown on television at a Workers' Party convention, the country's most significant political gathering in 30 years.

Yang's comments are the first public confirmation that Kim Jong Un will eventually take over as leader.

Kim Jong Il took over as leader after his father died in 1994 in what was the communist world's first hereditary transfer of power.

Leader in waiting: North Korea has today officially announced that Kim Jong Un will succeed his father as leader

South Korea warns of problems when NK power shifts

The United States and South Korea should be prepared for a crisis in North Korea when dictator Kim Jong Il leaves power, South Korea's defense chief said Friday.

The expected transfer of power to Kim's youngest son could have unpredictable consequences in the isolated nation, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said during a visit to the Pentagon.

"When Kim Jong Il's health may deteriorate, or if there's a movement of public opinion in North Korea, we cannot eliminate the possibility of there being an instability situation in North Korea" that would affect the security of the whole peninsula, Kim said through an interpreter.


Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young hold a joint news conference at the Pentagon, Friday, Oct. 8, 2010.


Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, looks toward South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young at the end of a joint news conference at the Pentagon, Friday, Oct. 8, 2010.





He did not elaborate, but some experts warn that the North could try to raise the prestige of its next leader by launching missiles or attacking South Korean targets. Others have said change at the top could trigger a military coup or a popular revolt.

North Korea has maintained a tight grip on its people and economy over six decades, while it pursued nuclear and missile technology and repeatedly defied international demands to disarm.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who spoke with his South Korean counterpart, told reporters it is not clear that the North's current leader's son, Kim Jong Un, would steer his country differently than his father. In a joint statement following two days of talks, both the U.S. and South Korea said that they "will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state."

But North Korea's U.N. ambassador, Sin Son Ho, defended his country's nuclear deterrent, saying the Korean peninsula would already have turned into a "bloody ground of war" without it.

"The more the United States pursues the hostile policy and escalates nuclear threats against the sovereignty and existence of our nation, the DPRK will continue its self-defensive deterrence," Sin said, referring to his country using the initials of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

There are signs of improving relations between the Koreas, including plans for reunions of families divided by the Korean War and talk of reviving a joint tourism venture.

But the U.S. also has deep concerns. North Korea quit U.S.-backed disarmament talks two years ago, stands accused of torpedoing a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, in March and may be seeking to resurrect its partially dismantled nuclear weapons program.

Some experts say North Korea may be trying to create the illusion of a thaw while it presses ahead with its nuclear program and reorders its political leadership.

"There's a lot of speculation about the circumstances that lay behind the sinking of the Cheonan and whether other provocations may follow," Gates said. "Provocations will not be tolerated."

Referring to the Cheonan without mentioning its name, Sin accused the U.S. of fabricating a conspiracy, driving "the situation of the Korean peninsula into a brink of war."

"If the United States is truly concerned about peace and security on the Korean peninsula, it should cease immediately all the military maneuvers that aggravate the situation and accept the DPRK's proposal to conclude the peace treaty."

The South Korean defense minister said North Korea must take responsibility for the sinking and apologize before relations can improve.

He said there are no indications that North Korea plans to disrupt an upcoming meeting of the Group of 20 economic powers in South Korea. "But we will go about watching against North Korean threats and any possible North Korean provocations," he added, including stepped up surveillance in concert with the United States.

Also Friday, nuclear proliferation experts said North Korea may be moving ahead with a program to enrich uranium to make nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang has moved beyond laboratory-scale work and is now capable of building a "at the very least, a pilot-scale" plant of centrifuges to enrich uranium, said a report by the Institute for Science and International Security.

The same Washington-based group also recently reported that satellite images show new construction in the area around North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, where it once produced plutonium for nuclear weapons.

The work is reportedly continuing at the same time that North Korea's leadership seems to have chosen a successor to Kim Jong Il.

A top official told broadcaster APTN on Friday that North Koreans will be honored to follow Kim's son as the third-generation leader of the reclusive communist nation.

The official's words underscored recent political moves in North Korea that seemed to seal the younger Kim's role as leader-in-waiting.

At the State Department, spokesman Mark Toner said that no matter who is in charge in Pyongyang, the U.S. will demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons. "We view that as an internal political matter and it really doesn't change our position," he said.

Paul Stares, an expert on Northeast Asian security at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it would be "irresponsible" not to prepare for numerous possible changes in North Korean behavior as leadership passes to a new generation.

"But there could also be provocative behavior," Stares said. "There could be possible unwelcome situations if there is a desire to burnish the credentials of the heir apparent by generating external provocations like the Cheonan or something else."

Victor Cha, who advised former President George W. Bush on North Korea, said that a leadership change would not reduce Pyongyang's reliance on ally China or loosen its grip on its centralized economy.

"Major economic reform for a political system like this is extremely risky," said Cha, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"It is about the most risky thing that a closed regime can do and it is exponentially more risky if it is a closed regime going through a transition."